So here I am a week before I return home, taking a break from writing my ten page paper on symbolism in Renaissance Art. Sounds pretty interesting, doesn't it? Maybe I'll post it on my blog for you all to read before you go to bed. I'm sure you'll be sleeping before you finish the introduction.
So last weekend I had the pleasure of joining the Liljedahl family (sorry Drew) on a trip to Ireland! The trouble began leaving Pisa, as it usually does. Ironically, it wasn't entirely Ryanair's fault this time. There was really dense fog all day in Pisa, so no flights had left the entire afternoon. After standing in the security line for 20 minutes we finally figured this out. No one told us if our flight was going to be rescheduled or if we would be leaving from a different airport, so Dennis and I got elected to stand in line at the "customer service" desk. After standing in that line for...probably 45 minutes...we had gotten nothing accomplished except befriending a lovely American couple, Heather and Otis (maybe Owen..i don't know?).
The line was pretty hilarious because the Ryanair workers weren't helping anyone. People were yelling profanity and things like "you're treating us like cattle" in Italian. We only knew this thanks to our translator Heather. We finally gave up, and waited around for announcements telling us what we were suppose to do. They finally told us they were going to bus us to Genova, two hours from Pisa, and fly us from there. We waited for another hour or so for our bus and then we were on our merry way to Genova. Times were kind of a blur from there, but I know we didn't end up leaving the Genova airport until after 1. Even though the flight was in the middle of the night, it didn't stop Ryanair from playing their circus music and selling raffle tickets.
When we finally got to Dublin at 4 am we were fortunate enough to find a shuttle bus taking us directly to a hotel. I would have slept in a hammock at this point, but we really lucked out. The bed I slept in was the most comfortable bed I have slept in since my air mattress at the lake...ha. No, but I slept so good and didn't wake up to Dennis or Diane snoring once!
Since we didn't get to bed until 5, we slept until 11 or so the next day. Dennis had already been up for a while, so we sent him back to the airport to get a rental car. We figured he'd be back by the time we were ready. We had to be out of our room by twelve so we headed down to the lobby and caffeinated ourselves.
Dennis should be here any minute, right? No. We thought "maybe there was a long line, or he had forgotten his passport or something". Nope. No trouble with getting the car. I guess I'll get another coffee, he'll show up as soon as I get it. Still no Dennis. Ok, if we all go to the bathroom, he will surely show up. Again, no Dennis. We were starting to get a little concerned. Around TWO, I think, Dennis drives around the corner in a family sudan. So where was Dennis you're all asking? Driving around in circles, literally. Apparently round abouts are not as easy as you might think. I'm not sure how many times he stopped and asked for directions, but I would have loved for there to be a camera in that car to see his face every time he had to head back to the airport and start over. To add to the confusion, I'll remind you that they drive on the wrong side of the road in Ireland. And by wrong, I mean left. Props to you though Dennis. I would STILL be driving somewhere between the airport and the hotel.
Here we are waiting....waiting....waiting....
So after we settled in the Toyota, we looked at a map of Ireland and decided where we wanted to go. For some reason we thought Waterford sounded like a nice place, so we decided to go! Luckily Abbey is a whiz with electronics and got Freaky Frita (our GPS) up and running. Diane gave it a different name, but it's not appropriate...use your imagination ;).
It took two or three hours to drive to Waterford. It was such a pretty drive! Crazy to think it was so green in December. When we got to Waterford we walked around the town for a while looking for somewhere to eat. We settled on an Irish Pub (weird) where Abbey and I discovered our new favorite beer, Carlsburg! Hopefully you can get it back at home!
After stuffing our faces with much needed Irish food, we went to find a hotel. We ended up at this Marina Club Hotel right on the river. It was a huge room and had four beds! We all had our own bed for the night. It took us about five minutes to drop our stuff off and find the hotel bar.
This is me indulging in my first and last Guinness. Sorry Martin, not my favorite!
After having a drink at the bar hotel, we went across the street to another little pub. We were the only people there besides this group of old men. Every other word that came out of their mouth was either "bloody" or the F* word. Naturally the new Brittney single "Womanizer" was quite fitting in the background.
Our hotel room came with a view!
Yes...Waterford=Waterford Crystal. On our way out of town we stopped at the Waterford Crystal factory and store. Sadly I didn't get any crystal, but I did get a claddagh and cleaned them out of Duffy magnets. For those of you who don't know, it's my mom's maiden name AND my sisters middle name. Rose Duffy :P.
We decided our next destination would be Cork. The view, once again, was beautiful. We pulled over and stopped for a photo opp. So windy!
Street in Cork- crowded with Christmas shoppers.
Have a PLucking great Christmas.
After we ate some lunch and said hi to the Corkians we headed to Blarney Castle, about fifteen minutes from Cork. We had heard that it wasn't really worth the trouble to go to the Blarney Castle because it was usually flooded with tourists. We did not have that problem at all. We were practically the only people there!!!
Awwwww...how precious.
I was quite terrified, but I did it! Kissed the Blarney Stone.
Abbey puckering up.
And Diane kissing the Blarney Stone.
Ireland is windier than Ames!
Do you see the rainbow?
Here is a series of really horrible pictures of me...laugh away.
After we all made out with the Blarney Stone, we headed to Limerick. Again, don't know why we chose Limerick.
Not quite sure whats going on here, but I'm pretty sure we were all a little delirious from being in the car. You have no idea how stressful driving can be when you don't know exactly where you're going, you're on the wrong side of the car and road, and Irish people drive in two lanes, but act like its four. Pretty terrifying.
We drove round and round in circles (literally) looking for a hotel. We finally found one and decided it was time for a drink. We asked the two ladies at the front desk of the hotel for a good place to eat and maybe some entertainment. They looked at eachother and both say "ohhh Dolans". They explained to us where it was, and we thought we had it, but apparently not. Plus, I don't think any of us actually caught the name of the pub. So again, driving round and round in circles not finding this place. However; we did see a hooker workin it. I've been to Paris, Rome, and London and have never seen a hooker, but Limerick- who'd think? We finally decide we're going to ask where this place is. Abbey and I get out at this other hotel and try to ask them where this pub is, but all we can say is that it starts with a "D". The lady knew exactly what we were talking about and pretty much told us it was like three feet behind us and we had driven past it 65 times.
So we find freakin Dolans, and I'm pretty sure our first beers where gone in minutes. We again enjoyed Irish food, which is pretty close to the food I would eat at home. So very refreshing considering my diet has consisted of pasta and gelato for the past four months. A few beers later, and about five hundred stolen coasters...and maybe a Carlsburg mug...we were back to the hotel to watch about five minutes of Friends, IN ENGLISH, before passing out.
Oh and by the way, on our way home, on the same bridge we spotted the hooker, there was a man trying to jump off it. Luckily some guys pulled him back, but it was crazy. Limerick is a scary place!
The next morning we woke to a beautiful day in Limerick, and got the hell out of there as quick as we could. We headed to Dublin for our final night in Ireland.
When we got to Dublin we did a little shopping and found a hotel right away. We had parked the car closer to Grafton street, the main shopping street in Dublin, so we headed back that way and did some shopping.
On our way back to the car we stopped at this restaurant/pub....I'm not really sure what you would call it.... named the Bleeding Horse and had some appetizers. This place was huge, and it was really cool. It had two floors and lots of different little rooms. There was a soccer game on the big tv downstairs, so most of the people were watching that.
I think we were in Dublin the night of their Christmas/lights festival, or maybe its just always this crazy! But there were people everywhere. All the stores were super crowded. Abbey and I finally found some stores we liked in Ireland. Every other town we were in the only store they had was Penny's, not JC Penny. I think it was like a Kohls or something, but everyone was carrying Penny's bags. We never made it into one to see what all the hype was about. Neither Abbey or I bought anything though. I'm having too much trouble fitting everything in my suitcases to come home already!
After we picked up the car, we went back to the hotel and then went out to eat dinner. We walked down this road where we were told all the restaurants and pubs where. We were pretty hungry at this point, but every restaurant we went in was full. Everyone on the streets was already drunk by this point. We finally found this random little restaurant, but had to wait a half hour to sit, and then another hour or so for our food. I think they forgot about us. I miss American service!!! They did buy us a round of drinks I guess, so I shouldn't hold a grudge.
After that, we looked for a pub to hang out at for a while. Most of the places we went into were super crowded. Abbey and I probably could have made some friends, but since we were with the rents, we thought we should find a calmer place. We finally found one where we could sit down.
Highlite of the trip: So we're sitting in this bar, drinking our Carlsburg's, and there are these two girls sitting in the stools next to us. One girl is talking to the other one who is clearly not responding. She was definitely taking a little nap. At first she was leaning on her hand, but then she starts kind of leaning back on this stool with no back. Diane said "that girls is going to fall". Sure enough, seconds later she onto the ground. Thanks to Dennis, a bartender, and a man that looked kind of like a leprechan, she didn't completely hit the floor. Of course we couldn't help from laughing, but I think Julie (this was her name we learned) was a little upset. The bartender tried telling her friend it was probably time for them to go, but she kept on sipping her wine. Her friend tried leaving her alone while she stepped out to have a cigarette. It didn't take the bartender long to figure out that Julie was sleeping once again. Then he formely kicked them out by saying there was a cab waiting for them outside.
Lesson Learned: Make sure you have good enough friends who would take you home if you were passed out at a bar. BUT if you don't make sure you grab a stool with a back on it. I would like to think my friends would save me the embarrassment and take me home.
The next morning we got up and packed all our stuff up for what felt like the fifteenth time and got into the Toyota. We headed to the Old Jameson Distillery.
Did I tell you how much Ireland reminded me of Iowa? Friendly people, hardy food, and horses in the middle of the biggest city.
The tour of the Jameson Distillery was pretty interesting. We got to sample some at the end of the tour. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it'd be. Not my drink of choice, but it didn't taste like gasoline.
Now this one's going in the Christmas card for sure.
Afterwards we did a little more shopping and headed to the airport...
Abbey and I about didn't come back to Italy. We really enjoyed Ireland and didn't want to come back to nonstop studying and packing, not to mention my stinky apartment.
I don't think I even need to say it, but our flight was delayed. Abbey and I thought we'd end the trip right and have a few more Carlsburg's while we waited for our flight. Best idea ever- never slept so well on a plane.
When I started this blog I had a week left, but now I only have six days. Oh how the time flies. I was looking at our itinerary and it seriously sucks! We leave Florence at 6:50 am (midnight @ home) and don't get back until 8:00 pm- plus another 2 hours from Des Moines to Shen. I'll save you the trouble from doing the math, thats 22 hours of traveling.
I'll see you all very, very soon!! Good luck with all your finals and end of the semester crap.
love love love
vivi
So last weekend I had the pleasure of joining the Liljedahl family (sorry Drew) on a trip to Ireland! The trouble began leaving Pisa, as it usually does. Ironically, it wasn't entirely Ryanair's fault this time. There was really dense fog all day in Pisa, so no flights had left the entire afternoon. After standing in the security line for 20 minutes we finally figured this out. No one told us if our flight was going to be rescheduled or if we would be leaving from a different airport, so Dennis and I got elected to stand in line at the "customer service" desk. After standing in that line for...probably 45 minutes...we had gotten nothing accomplished except befriending a lovely American couple, Heather and Otis (maybe Owen..i don't know?).
The line was pretty hilarious because the Ryanair workers weren't helping anyone. People were yelling profanity and things like "you're treating us like cattle" in Italian. We only knew this thanks to our translator Heather. We finally gave up, and waited around for announcements telling us what we were suppose to do. They finally told us they were going to bus us to Genova, two hours from Pisa, and fly us from there. We waited for another hour or so for our bus and then we were on our merry way to Genova. Times were kind of a blur from there, but I know we didn't end up leaving the Genova airport until after 1. Even though the flight was in the middle of the night, it didn't stop Ryanair from playing their circus music and selling raffle tickets.
When we finally got to Dublin at 4 am we were fortunate enough to find a shuttle bus taking us directly to a hotel. I would have slept in a hammock at this point, but we really lucked out. The bed I slept in was the most comfortable bed I have slept in since my air mattress at the lake...ha. No, but I slept so good and didn't wake up to Dennis or Diane snoring once!
Since we didn't get to bed until 5, we slept until 11 or so the next day. Dennis had already been up for a while, so we sent him back to the airport to get a rental car. We figured he'd be back by the time we were ready. We had to be out of our room by twelve so we headed down to the lobby and caffeinated ourselves.
Dennis should be here any minute, right? No. We thought "maybe there was a long line, or he had forgotten his passport or something". Nope. No trouble with getting the car. I guess I'll get another coffee, he'll show up as soon as I get it. Still no Dennis. Ok, if we all go to the bathroom, he will surely show up. Again, no Dennis. We were starting to get a little concerned. Around TWO, I think, Dennis drives around the corner in a family sudan. So where was Dennis you're all asking? Driving around in circles, literally. Apparently round abouts are not as easy as you might think. I'm not sure how many times he stopped and asked for directions, but I would have loved for there to be a camera in that car to see his face every time he had to head back to the airport and start over. To add to the confusion, I'll remind you that they drive on the wrong side of the road in Ireland. And by wrong, I mean left. Props to you though Dennis. I would STILL be driving somewhere between the airport and the hotel.
Here we are waiting....waiting....waiting....
So after we settled in the Toyota, we looked at a map of Ireland and decided where we wanted to go. For some reason we thought Waterford sounded like a nice place, so we decided to go! Luckily Abbey is a whiz with electronics and got Freaky Frita (our GPS) up and running. Diane gave it a different name, but it's not appropriate...use your imagination ;).
It took two or three hours to drive to Waterford. It was such a pretty drive! Crazy to think it was so green in December. When we got to Waterford we walked around the town for a while looking for somewhere to eat. We settled on an Irish Pub (weird) where Abbey and I discovered our new favorite beer, Carlsburg! Hopefully you can get it back at home!
After stuffing our faces with much needed Irish food, we went to find a hotel. We ended up at this Marina Club Hotel right on the river. It was a huge room and had four beds! We all had our own bed for the night. It took us about five minutes to drop our stuff off and find the hotel bar.
This is me indulging in my first and last Guinness. Sorry Martin, not my favorite!
After having a drink at the bar hotel, we went across the street to another little pub. We were the only people there besides this group of old men. Every other word that came out of their mouth was either "bloody" or the F* word. Naturally the new Brittney single "Womanizer" was quite fitting in the background.
Our hotel room came with a view!
Yes...Waterford=Waterford Crystal. On our way out of town we stopped at the Waterford Crystal factory and store. Sadly I didn't get any crystal, but I did get a claddagh and cleaned them out of Duffy magnets. For those of you who don't know, it's my mom's maiden name AND my sisters middle name. Rose Duffy :P.
We decided our next destination would be Cork. The view, once again, was beautiful. We pulled over and stopped for a photo opp. So windy!
Street in Cork- crowded with Christmas shoppers.
Have a PLucking great Christmas.
After we ate some lunch and said hi to the Corkians we headed to Blarney Castle, about fifteen minutes from Cork. We had heard that it wasn't really worth the trouble to go to the Blarney Castle because it was usually flooded with tourists. We did not have that problem at all. We were practically the only people there!!!
Awwwww...how precious.
I was quite terrified, but I did it! Kissed the Blarney Stone.
Abbey puckering up.
And Diane kissing the Blarney Stone.
Ireland is windier than Ames!
Do you see the rainbow?
Here is a series of really horrible pictures of me...laugh away.
After we all made out with the Blarney Stone, we headed to Limerick. Again, don't know why we chose Limerick.
Not quite sure whats going on here, but I'm pretty sure we were all a little delirious from being in the car. You have no idea how stressful driving can be when you don't know exactly where you're going, you're on the wrong side of the car and road, and Irish people drive in two lanes, but act like its four. Pretty terrifying.
We drove round and round in circles (literally) looking for a hotel. We finally found one and decided it was time for a drink. We asked the two ladies at the front desk of the hotel for a good place to eat and maybe some entertainment. They looked at eachother and both say "ohhh Dolans". They explained to us where it was, and we thought we had it, but apparently not. Plus, I don't think any of us actually caught the name of the pub. So again, driving round and round in circles not finding this place. However; we did see a hooker workin it. I've been to Paris, Rome, and London and have never seen a hooker, but Limerick- who'd think? We finally decide we're going to ask where this place is. Abbey and I get out at this other hotel and try to ask them where this pub is, but all we can say is that it starts with a "D". The lady knew exactly what we were talking about and pretty much told us it was like three feet behind us and we had driven past it 65 times.
So we find freakin Dolans, and I'm pretty sure our first beers where gone in minutes. We again enjoyed Irish food, which is pretty close to the food I would eat at home. So very refreshing considering my diet has consisted of pasta and gelato for the past four months. A few beers later, and about five hundred stolen coasters...and maybe a Carlsburg mug...we were back to the hotel to watch about five minutes of Friends, IN ENGLISH, before passing out.
Oh and by the way, on our way home, on the same bridge we spotted the hooker, there was a man trying to jump off it. Luckily some guys pulled him back, but it was crazy. Limerick is a scary place!
The next morning we woke to a beautiful day in Limerick, and got the hell out of there as quick as we could. We headed to Dublin for our final night in Ireland.
When we got to Dublin we did a little shopping and found a hotel right away. We had parked the car closer to Grafton street, the main shopping street in Dublin, so we headed back that way and did some shopping.
On our way back to the car we stopped at this restaurant/pub....I'm not really sure what you would call it.... named the Bleeding Horse and had some appetizers. This place was huge, and it was really cool. It had two floors and lots of different little rooms. There was a soccer game on the big tv downstairs, so most of the people were watching that.
I think we were in Dublin the night of their Christmas/lights festival, or maybe its just always this crazy! But there were people everywhere. All the stores were super crowded. Abbey and I finally found some stores we liked in Ireland. Every other town we were in the only store they had was Penny's, not JC Penny. I think it was like a Kohls or something, but everyone was carrying Penny's bags. We never made it into one to see what all the hype was about. Neither Abbey or I bought anything though. I'm having too much trouble fitting everything in my suitcases to come home already!
After we picked up the car, we went back to the hotel and then went out to eat dinner. We walked down this road where we were told all the restaurants and pubs where. We were pretty hungry at this point, but every restaurant we went in was full. Everyone on the streets was already drunk by this point. We finally found this random little restaurant, but had to wait a half hour to sit, and then another hour or so for our food. I think they forgot about us. I miss American service!!! They did buy us a round of drinks I guess, so I shouldn't hold a grudge.
After that, we looked for a pub to hang out at for a while. Most of the places we went into were super crowded. Abbey and I probably could have made some friends, but since we were with the rents, we thought we should find a calmer place. We finally found one where we could sit down.
Highlite of the trip: So we're sitting in this bar, drinking our Carlsburg's, and there are these two girls sitting in the stools next to us. One girl is talking to the other one who is clearly not responding. She was definitely taking a little nap. At first she was leaning on her hand, but then she starts kind of leaning back on this stool with no back. Diane said "that girls is going to fall". Sure enough, seconds later she onto the ground. Thanks to Dennis, a bartender, and a man that looked kind of like a leprechan, she didn't completely hit the floor. Of course we couldn't help from laughing, but I think Julie (this was her name we learned) was a little upset. The bartender tried telling her friend it was probably time for them to go, but she kept on sipping her wine. Her friend tried leaving her alone while she stepped out to have a cigarette. It didn't take the bartender long to figure out that Julie was sleeping once again. Then he formely kicked them out by saying there was a cab waiting for them outside.
Lesson Learned: Make sure you have good enough friends who would take you home if you were passed out at a bar. BUT if you don't make sure you grab a stool with a back on it. I would like to think my friends would save me the embarrassment and take me home.
The next morning we got up and packed all our stuff up for what felt like the fifteenth time and got into the Toyota. We headed to the Old Jameson Distillery.
Did I tell you how much Ireland reminded me of Iowa? Friendly people, hardy food, and horses in the middle of the biggest city.
The tour of the Jameson Distillery was pretty interesting. We got to sample some at the end of the tour. It wasn't as horrible as I thought it'd be. Not my drink of choice, but it didn't taste like gasoline.
Now this one's going in the Christmas card for sure.
Afterwards we did a little more shopping and headed to the airport...
Abbey and I about didn't come back to Italy. We really enjoyed Ireland and didn't want to come back to nonstop studying and packing, not to mention my stinky apartment.
I don't think I even need to say it, but our flight was delayed. Abbey and I thought we'd end the trip right and have a few more Carlsburg's while we waited for our flight. Best idea ever- never slept so well on a plane.
When I started this blog I had a week left, but now I only have six days. Oh how the time flies. I was looking at our itinerary and it seriously sucks! We leave Florence at 6:50 am (midnight @ home) and don't get back until 8:00 pm- plus another 2 hours from Des Moines to Shen. I'll save you the trouble from doing the math, thats 22 hours of traveling.
I'll see you all very, very soon!! Good luck with all your finals and end of the semester crap.
love love love
vivi
